Despite a flagging economy and campaign fatigue from the contentious 2010 general election season, the race for Denver mayor is shaping up to be the most expensive on record.

Six mayoral candidates, including one who has dropped out, raised nearly $3.7 million through Thursday, according to reports filed with the Denver clerk and recorder’s office.

That is just slightly more than what was raised through April during the record-breaking 2003 election, in which Denver businessman John Hickenlooper beat city Auditor Don Mares in a June runoff.

Tuesday is when ballots from the all-mail-in election will be counted. If no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote, the top two vote-getters will compete in a June 7 runoff.

As of Thursday, about 71,000 of the 298,000 ballots mailed out had been returned.

Former state Sen. Chris Romer is the money leader, bringing in $1.44 million over the course of the campaign and spending $1.38 million of it, including nearly $1 million to Chicago-based AKPD Message and Media, a political advertising consulting company.

Romer this month borrowed $131,000 from his own bank account, a sign that one political observer says shows how close the race is.

“If you are spending almost everything you have, it is because you believe you are in a close race,” said political analyst Floyd Ciruli. “You would think that you would be as frugal as possible, saving money for the runoff. You can see that he is thinking he has to spend that money to get into the runoff.”

Romer’s team said he borrowed the money to ensure that he has the most robust get-out-the-vote effort in the campaign.

“We will find out how much a million dollars buys you,” Ciruli said.

As past Denver campaigns have shown, the largest cash raiser is not always successful.

In 2003, former lawman Ari Zavaras accumulated $1,071,537 through April but did not make the runoff.

Mares, with contributions that totaled $749,662, and Hickenlooper, with $952,728, were on the June ballot.

Of the $425,907 raised by Romer in April, 93 percent of the contributions came from inside Colorado, including 36 donations of the maximum $3,000, according to research by Burt Hubbard of the Rocky Mountain Investigative News Network.

Romer received $3,000 each from Frederic and Jane Hamilton, funders of the new Denver Art Museum wing; $3,000 from Wal-Mart; and $500 from former Colorado Gov. Bill Owens.

Romer may also be served by a political action committee formed by Sam Zackhem, a former U.S. ambassador to Bahrain under then-President Ronald Reagan. The committee — Denver Jobs Alliance — raised $25,500 in April and spent $15,000 of that Wednesday at a Grand Junction advertising firm.

City Councilman Michael Hancock is the second-highest money collector, gathering a total of $791,209 so far.

Of the $209,225 Hancock acquired in April, 88 percent came from inside Colorado and 14 were donations of the maximum $3,000.

Forest City Stapleton gave him $3,000; Forest City Northfield $2,000; Parkwood Homes at Stapleton $1,000; and two Oakwood Homes officials gave a total of $1,150.

Three Denver Public Schools board members — Theresa Peña, Bruce Hoyt and Nate Easley — gave a total of $1,850.

Hancock said he was most pleased about the $500 donation from John Elway, the Denver Broncos’ vice president of football operations and a Hall of Fame quarterback.

“I am a huge fan,” Hancock said. “If I don’t win this race, I will still be excited that I got that donation from John Elway.”

James Mejia has collected a total of $571,303.

Of the $131,596 collected in April, 88 percent was from inside the state. He received 10 donations of $3,000 each, including one from a teachers union and another from the Denver police union.

Businesswoman Linda Alvarado also gave Mejia $3,000.

Councilman Doug Linkhart had one $1,200 donation and received $500 from the SweetLeaf Compassion Center, a medical marijuana dispensary in Denver, and $300 from DPS board member Jeanne Kaplan.

Jeremy P. Meyer was a reporter and editorial writer with The Denver Post until 2016. He worked at a variety of weeklies in Washington state before going to the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin as sports writer and then copy editor. He moved to the Yakima Herald-Republic as a feature writer, then to The Gazette in Colorado Springs as news reporter before landing at The Post. He covered Aurora, the environment, K-12 education, Denver city hall and eventually moved to the editorial page as a writer and columnist.

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